Imus, Cavite gearing up for 120th Flag Day, Wagayway Festival
IMUS, Cavite – Preparations are underway for the 120th Flag Day celebration and ‘Wagayway Festival’ on May 28 in this historical capital city.
The Flag Day celebration in Imus is a prelude to Independence Day activities and festivities at Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, a neighboring municipality, on June 12.
The twin celebrations are major events in the province every year. Flag Day program Corazon Z. del Mundo, a consultant of the Local Tourism Development Office, said that the week-long Flag Day celebration starting May 21 would be simple but colorful and memorable.
Del Mundo said that the commemoration virtually started last May 7 with the launching of the ‘Photo Challenge,’ a contest involving the best photographs of heritage sites in Imus.
A musical event, ‘Uprising Concert’, is also set on May 19 at the City Sports Complex.
The official week-long celebration will start May 21 with the traditional Thanksgiving Mass at the historic Our Lady of Pillar Cathedral and the Grand Parade, which include the display of the giant Philippines flag, at the city plaza.
Invited to grace the program proper are Department of Tourism Undersecretary and Journalist Katherine de Castro and other government officials.
Also gracing the event are Mayor Emmanuel Leonard Maliksi, 3rd District (Imus) Rep. Alex Advincula, Vice Mayor Arnel Cantimbuhan, the city councilors, former Cavite Gov. Erineo Maliksi, the mayor’s father and other local officials.
The program proper is set at Dambana ng Pambansang Watawat (Shrine of the National Flag) at Imus’ Heritage Park in Miguel Santo, Barangay Alapan II-B, starting at 7:30 a.m. on May 28.
The program’s highlights include the wreath-laying at the Dambana ng Inang Laya (Shrine of Mother Freedom) and the singing of the national anthem as well as the raising of the giant flag at the site’s 90-feet pole.
This early, a row of Philippines flag are already displayed along Nueno Avenue leading to the city plaza. Flag capital and Battle of Alapan
Imus is known as the Flag Capital of the Philippines as it was in the Battle of Alapan on May 28, 1898 that the new Philippine flag was first unfurled by Filipino revolutionaries under General Emilio F. Aguinaldo.
The Battle of Alapan was the first uprising victory of Aguinaldo and the revolutionaries against the Spanish forces after the return of the General to the Philippines on May 18, 1898 from exile in Hong Kong.
The flag, designed by Aguinaldo himself, was sewn in Hong Kong by Marcela Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenza, and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, a niece of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
Wagayway Festival The flag day commemoration every year in Imus goes with the “Wagayway” (Flag Display) Festival put up by the local government.
The commemoration is a rundown to the June 12 Independence Day celebration at Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit.
Cavite is known as the country’s Historical Capital as it was the center of revolutionary events and the birthplace of the Philippines’ independence from Spanish colonial rule that spanned over 300 years.